The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-10-14
WOMAN's DEPARTMENT.
SUFFRAGE A RIGHT.

SUFFRAGE A RIGHT.
IL woman Suffrage . Right or . Privi.
leEcf-Prof. W. H. Carruth's Reply to
senator Ingalls,.
Sojourner Truth once had made an
abolition argument when some ''but-
ternut" present exclaimed: "Why.
old woman, do you think We care for
what you say? We don't mind your
talk any more than feabite. "Well.
sir" said Sojourner Truth. "then l
propose to keep you scratching"
The politicians profess not to heed the
opinions of unpolitical men, but we
propose at least to keep them scratch
ing" Every man of us who pays
taxes and has an idea of his own should
speak it out. and perhaps we can get
our will done sometime. If We are to
hold our tongues, how is any one to
know what the voice of the people is?
1t would end in being-The voice of
the politician is the voice of God; and
the Democratic principle would be dis
proved by a reductiO ad absurdum.
There could be no more appropriate
time than this, the anniversary
of the PRONUNCIATION of the Decla-
ration of Independence. for me
to make protest which l have long
had waiting, against certain per-
nicious doctrine which l call political
infidelity.
A short time ago distinguished cit
izcn of the State, and the acting Vice
President of our Union (Senator
Ingalls,, made public profession of
this hercsy in a speech at Abilene.
which may be taken as the perfect
flower and consuramate absurdity of
the arguments against the principle of
democratic government. And if l
wanted to defeat that distinguished
gentleman in future candidacy, l
would confne myself to publishing
that speech and getting it clearly be-
fore his constituency. But 1 have no
war to make upon Senator Ingalls,.
only upon the doctrine which he
breaches; and the more dazzling his
armor and the more lofty his position,
the more is it the duty of every citizen,
however lowly, to defend the position
which he attacks. and to let it be
clearly known that Kansas is not ready
to accept an aristOcracy.
The doctrine. of which we hear more
and more as the practice of reading the
Declaration of Independence falls into
decay-and may heaven check that de-
cadence!-is this: That suffrage is
simply a privilege. a concession, not a
right. No one. they say. has right
to vote; government simply grants the
privilege to those whom it so chooses
to honor.
Now, my friends, this argument, if
any argument be necessary in a coun-
try like ours, turns on the question:
What is government, and what is it
for? Senator ingalls, answers the ques-
ton from an aristocratic standpoint,
nay, more, from an autocratic stand
point. He assumes that government
is something outside of and separate
from the governed. which is estab-
lished by the grace of God-known
in the Senator's vocabulary as force
and which has the right and function
of saying what men shall live for and
how they shall do it: what is the chief
end Of man and which end he shall
stand on. That representative of the
most democratic State in all this great
republic of democracies should gravely
announce to the people that govern
ment depends on force, is a significant
fact. and, if that announcement is re-
ceived without loud and forcible pro-
tesla lamentable fact. But, unfortun-
ately for the doctrine proclaimed. the
charter of this Government reads diff
fcrently. and the whole history of CIV
ilization shows that it is exactly away
from this kind of government that we
have been growing.
Up TO the present century. suffrage
was the right only of those classes
which had seized it. But it is the
glory of our age to have recognized the
true and right principle of govern
mcnt. and to have made within the
last fifty years the first extensions OF
the right to those who could not have
taken it by force of arms. To be sure.
there are still restrictions on tho sut-
frage: but their nature proves that it is
regarded rs right. They have to
show cause for their existence. Grim
inals are excluded from the suffrage.
because their influence is cast against
the very purposes for which gov
ernmcnts arc established. Crime
is unorganized treason. Idiots are
excluded because they can not know
whether they are doing what is for
their own good. The young are ex-
cIuded for the same reason-the ar
bitrary age of twenty-one being set
rs limit of their incapacity. because
of the insurmountable difficulty of de-
termining the age of discretion in
every individual. Finally. women are
excluded, because-well, nobody has
yet succeeded in finding valid rea-
son for that, and Kansas, always fore
most, has begun the work of remov-
ing distractions; and she doesn't go
backward.
THE OCCASION LOST.
A woman's View Of the Recent Constitu-